Derivative

If you studied calculus you know the concept of a derivative of a function.

I’m not a mathematician, my simple definition is that derivate of a function is the rate of change of a given point.

If you take the second derivate equal zero you can find the minimum and/or maximum of a function.

This is useful in machine learning where you want to optimize your loss function.

Gradient descent algorithm is basically calculate the gradient, derivates of all dimensions of your function, and move a bit in that direction that will let you find the zero of the function being optimized.

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One thing that I like to do is to apply concepts of one area into another.

We can use derivative term as second order effects of a given fact.

What is the derivative of covid19?

Derivative in this phrase is all about what these changes will affect the world in the long run.

Let’s derive some hypothesis:

Covid19 changed our society in many ways.

It changed how we worked, most of the companies moved to remote work to avoid contamination.

Some companies decided to be remote work only. Some companies decided to be remote forever.

What will happen in the long run? remote work will be more common, or we are going back to the office?

It affected a lot small business that only had a physical location to sell their goods. Some of them broke, some of them moved to sell their good using e-commerce with delivery for short location and shipping for big ones. Will all stores have a digital experience even when everything is back to “normal”?

it changed how students have to learn. As most schools moved to an online experience, most people feel that the “watching” is not enough to learn and master the subject, they were watching before inside a classroom.